Chapter 41: A Headache! Gone Viral Online

Chapter 41: Chapter 41: A Headache! Gone Viral Online

Zhang Lin hadn’t expected the call to be from the Tourism Bureau. "Director Chen, our farm qualifies for the tourism project support subsidy?"

The thought hadn’t even crossed his mind. After all, all the procedures and permits for the farm had been handled through the Agriculture Bureau.

However, for agro-tourism park projects, you could indeed go to either the Agriculture Bureau or the Tourism Bureau; there wasn’t a very clear-cut classification.

He was, of course, aware of the Tourism Bureau’s support and subsidy policies. It seemed many scenic areas were benefiting from them, like a certain 4A-rated scenic area in You City with a total investment of 500 million, a large portion of which was government subsidies.

As for the results of that 500-million investment, on a normal, non-holiday morning, that scenic area definitely received fewer visitors than his Flower Sea did on its first day.

It was safe to say there was no telling when that 500 million would ever be recouped.

But why would a director from the Tourism Bureau suddenly call him out of the blue?

Normally, it was the people running the tourist attractions who took the initiative to apply at the Tourism Bureau.

Director Chen said with a pleasant smile, "We in You City are vigorously developing tourism. Any tourism project can apply for the subsidy policy. President Zhang can come to the Tourism Bureau to fill out an application form. When would you be free, President Zhang?"

"I can head over right now," Zhang Lin responded at once.

In truth, the tourism subsidy wasn’t a big deal to him. With the game system, he was already making plenty of money from wholesaling fruit. After the first day, word-of-mouth from the visitors would surely bring even more tourists on the second day.

Once the online promotion started to snowball, the revenue from the Flower Sea alone would likely surpass what he earned from wholesaling fruit.

And the subsidy from the Tourism Bureau probably wouldn’t be that much anyway, considering his was just a 500-mu Flower Sea.

Still, every little bit helps.

He had paid back the 550,000 and spent another 5,000 on an ad at Darunfa. After factoring in the 12,000 from this morning’s wholesale—Lin Tuo and Zhang Dong’s payments for the day had arrived—and the morning’s revenue from the Flower Sea and restaurant, his card balance was now just a little over 90,000.

And he still owed the bank over 600,000 on his family’s home loan.

Zhang Lin hung up the phone and rode his bike straight to the Tourism Bureau. After entering, he asked for Director Chen’s office and went straight upstairs.

Director Chen was a balding, middle-aged man.

After sitting down, Zhang Lin said very politely, "Director Chen, I’m Zhang Lin."

Chen Ting wasted no time, handing a form to Zhang Lin. "President Zhang, please fill out this application form first."

Zhang Lin took the application form, glanced over it, and began filling it out. There wasn’t much to it, so he finished quickly and handed it back. "Director Chen, I’m done."

But after Director Chen took the application, he didn’t say much. Instead, as he looked it over, he started tapping his fingers on the desk.

Seeing this, Zhang Lin’s brow furrowed slightly.

’Damn it, I came all this way so enthusiastically. Don’t tell me I’ve run into this kind of crap?’

In a small place like You City, when you went to certain departments to get things done, someone tapping their fingers on the desk like that meant it was time for you to "be sensible."

And as for *how* to be sensible, anyone who wasn’t an idiot would understand.

With that thought, he immediately said to Director Chen, "Director Chen, I’ve already filled out the application. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be heading back."

Seeing Zhang Lin get up to leave, Chen Ting grew annoyed at his lack of sense. Even if the bureau chief himself had given instructions about this Flower Sea, it wasn’t a done deal. How long the review process took was up to local fixtures like them.

Besides, the deputy director had also recommended someone, and it seemed the subsidy for the current quarter could only be given to one place.

There were plenty of people who wanted a piece of the tourism subsidy pie. Unless this so-called Flower Sea of his actually went viral online to the point where no one could object, then it would be no problem for him to go groveling to Zhang Lin instead.

But how many things actually managed to go viral online?

What he hated most was dealing with this kind of clueless greenhorn.

Seeing Zhang Lin about to walk out the door, Chen Ting tapped the desk more heavily and said, "President Zhang, the application form is filled out, but there are still many details to resolve. I’m busy right now and may not have time to explain them to you. You should go ask around. Once you understand, we can discuss it further."

"Alright, Director Chen!" Zhang Lin replied politely, though inwardly he was already cursing him out.

He was sure that if it had been someone else today, after they went back and asked around, they would’ve eventually been directed to the tea shop owned by Director Chen’s wife or some other relative.

After leaving the Tourism Bureau, Zhang Lin returned to the farm, chalking the trip up as a waste of time.

However, what put him in a good mood was that after he paid for a DOU+ boost for the promotional video of the rapeseed Flower Sea, the results were excellent. In just a short time, it had already gotten 10,000 likes and quite a few comments.

"For real? There are no filters on this rapeseed Flower Sea?"

"If this Flower Sea is real, tell me the location. If it’s fake, I hope you have a son with no a**hole!"

"You City is right next to my hometown! I’ll go check it out tomorrow!"

"..."

"Account ending in ****... (Online Payment) received 50 yuan. Balance: 91,350.21 yuan!"

His phone kept chiming with notifications for his card. People were pre-booking tickets to the Flower Sea online.

Although some people questioned whether the video, with its +1 Attractiveness attribute, had filters, there were always some who believed it and some who wanted to see for themselves.

The continuous online ticket bookings were a clear sign that this was a good thing.

In the afternoon, visitors continued to arrive at the rapeseed Flower Sea in a steady stream.

As the day passed in a flash, and after seeing off the last visitor, Zhang Lin immediately tallied up the numbers.

As expected, there were more visitors in the afternoon than in the morning. In total, they served 256 visitors, with ticket revenue from the Flower Sea at 12,800. The restaurant also served 25 tables in the evening, with a profit of 8,125, for a total of 20,925.

Adding the 12,995 from the morning, the Flower Sea and restaurant had brought in a total of 33,920 today.

And that was with his farm having so few things for people to spend money on. Otherwise, the revenue could have been even higher.

However, with the additional 20,925 yuan from the afternoon, his balance finally broke the 100,000 mark again.

Balance: 111,275.21 yuan.

Of course, what made him even happier was that when evening prime time arrived, the likes and comments on the video he posted started appearing even faster, and the view count was also increasing more rapidly.

The video was starting to take off.

With the +1 Attractiveness attribute and the sheer beauty of the rapeseed Flower Sea, as long as its reach wasn’t restricted and he boosted it with DOU+, it would be strange if it *didn’t* go viral.

So, he quickly seized the opportunity to pour another 10,000 into continuous DOU+ boosts, adding fuel to the fire during this take-off phase.

「The night passed.」

When many people woke up the next day and started scrolling through videos on Tiao Yin, they found the app recommending a video of a rapeseed Flower Sea.

「Ming City.」

As Chen Shengfei came downstairs, he heard his wife Fu Qing’s surprised voice, "Honey, look at this Tiao Yin video! Boss Zhang’s Flower Sea has gone viral! I told you that Flower Sea would be a hit!"

"Let me see!" Chen Shengfei came down the stairs, took the phone in surprise, and looked at the video.

It was a video of the rapeseed Flower Sea posted by Boss Zhang’s Li Yuan Farm. And what’s more, the likes had already reached 350,000 and were still climbing. It had definitely gone viral.

Seeing this, he immediately took out his own phone and called his cousin again. He had already told him about it yesterday; if his cousin had acted quickly, he would have surely made a good impression on Boss Zhang.

Now that Boss Zhang’s farm and its Flower Sea were a hit, it would be beneficial for his cousin, too.

’My cousin ought to thank me properly for this!’

...